Human Capital Development and Economic Growth : Evidence from Nigeria

This paper examines specifically the impact of human capital development on long-run economic growth in Nigeria, using time serial data for 27 year period: 1981-2007. The Ordinary Least Square multiple regression was used to estimate the necessary models. The gross domestic product per capita growth was adopted as the dependent variable, while the independent variables were primary education enrollment divided by GDP, post-primary education enrollment divided by GDP, tertiary education enrollment divided by GDP, and other variables that promotes economic growth like capital expenditure on education divided by GDP, recurrent expenditure on education divided by GDP, and fixed gross capital formation divided by GDP. The regression result shows that the components of human capital development defined by ratio primary education enrollment, ratio of post-primary education enrollment and ratio of tertiary education enrollment are positive but not significant in promoting economic growth in Nigeria. The paper recommends for the revitalization of Nigerian educational system